IMELDA AMBONDO and TIRI MASAWI
Cirrus Capital Director and Founder Rowland Brown has raised skepticism over the green hydrogen and oil and gas industries’ ability to create many sustainable jobs.
Experts in the Green Hydrogen industry have pegged potential job creation by the industry between 12 000 and 14 000 at both project construction phase and full operation.
Brown told Namibia Business Review on Saturday that green hydrogen, which is in its experimental stages, does not have many off-takers internationally and might not create the much needed sustainable jobs.
Brown added that Namibia stands to benefit immensely through tax revenue collection from both the oil and gas industries as well as the morphing green hydrogen industry.
“ So the hydrogen question is a lot more complicated, so let’s start there.
Obviously we hope that the hydrogen space works, but hydrogen does not actually have a market globally in a significant sense, and green hydrogen is an expensive form of basically the same gas. So there’s a lot of questions around that.
“We hope it works because it will create a few jobs for Namibians and every job matters. We’re not keen on putting too many of our resources into space because we think that it is still very risky and very nascent. The oil and gas industry is very different,” he said.
Making comparisons between the oil and gas on end and the green hydrogen industry, Brown said the oil and gas industry is extremely large but will also create very few jobs.
“It will pay a lot of tax to the government. This tax can be used, if it’s used right, it can be used to improve the lives of Namibian people. So both the oil and gas industry are not going to be big employers. Oil and gas and hydrogen are not going to be big employers, but they do have a big potential. The oil and gas industry does have a big potential to contribute meaningfully to the fiscus.
“The green hydrogen space is a lot less so. So the output from green hydrogen is unlikely to be as impactful as the oil and gas industry. So I think it’s a very different story,” he said.
Brown said the Government must take the lead in creating favorable policy that allows businesses to grow and create jobs.
“ Jobs are created by investment, people producing goods and services. And if we don’t attract investment into the country, it’s very unlikely that we’re going to see a lot of jobs being created and especially not long-term sustainable jobs.
“And so this really is a question of policy. Do we get the investment environment right? And if we get it right, we can create huge numbers of jobs extremely quickly. The building blocks for investment in Namibia are very, very good,” he said
He said Namibia still lacks the skills needed to drive the oil and gas as well as the green hydrogen industry and should put focus on capacity building.
Meanwhile Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board Executive FOR Investor Experience,Jessica Hauuanga said there is said there is need for policy formulation that allows for investor appetite in Namibia. She said this at a business forum on Saturday.
“We are only there as the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board to develop investments, to promote and facilitate. And then we are also involved in MSME development.Those are the main categories we are working with the government to improve policy,” she said.
NIPDB Senior Manager Policy Reform and Business Climate Nangula Shejavala advocated for investment policy reform. Speaking at a business forum on Saturday Shejavali said they are engaging with the government on policy reform to lure more investment into the country.
“Our focus is really on policy advocacy, and why we advocate for policy reform is really to help shape the investment climate, to be able to be more attractive for investment as a country, to promote policies that allow greater benefits to be extracted from FDI, from investments generally, and into both national competitiveness in a global economy. And these are some of the things that Roland spoke to.
“And also, just generally, when we look at the one-stop shop and so forth, it’s really about reducing that cost of bureaucracy, reducing the length of time that bureaucracy creates in terms of getting things done and so forth,” she said
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